Supreme Court refuses to ease scarf ban in AIPMT exam

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has refused to relax a CBSE-imposed ban on wearing of headscarves for the pre-medical entrance examination scheduled for Saturday, shrugging off protests by three female Muslim candidates that following the dress code will go against the tenets of their religion.

Earlier, the Kerala High Court had disallowed a similar plea on the ground that the Supreme Court was dealing with the pre-med tests, prompting the students to move the top court. On behalf of the students, senior lawyer Sanjay Hegde argued that CBSE’s July 9 notification asking invigilators to disallow students wearing head-scarves, bands and pins from answering the examination was discriminatory and against their right to faith and worship, as protected by Article 25 of the Constitution.

On Friday, a bench comprising Chief Justice of India HL Dattu and Justice Arun Kumar Mishra and Justice Amitava Ray, refused to accept it. “This is nothing but ego. Faith is not in the scarf. Take your examination, your faith won’t go,” the CJI said. In this context, the court said its own rules disallow use of caps in the court complex. The court has upheld these rules after it was challenged on the ground of faith, the CJI pointed out. To Hegde’s argument that it was a matter of faith involving a “minority within a minority”, and his reference to the Sikh religion’s insistence on turbans, the court said, “These are small issues we won’t interfere with.”

The CBSE had announced a dress code after the top court asked it to re-conduct the pre-medical test held on May 3. The move was prompted by the board’s complaint that some examinees had used devices hidden in their garments to cheat.

The students, on their part, claimed that articles of clothing such as head-scarf and full sleeves were part of their faith and that they could not be seen in public without them. They even offered to come to the examination centres two hours in advance and subject themselves to screening. The petition said, “Petitioners are practising Muslims required to wear full sleeves clothes and cover their heads with hijab/scarf. Furthermore, the scarf can be held in place only with the help of a hairpin or a headband, etc. “However, Rule 7(a) and 6(c) of the notification expressly prohibit a candidate from wearing any of these items. If these… are enforced… then their right to profess their religion under Article 25 of the Constitution is violated.”